A Proud American: The Autobiography of Joe Foss

WW II hero Foss (as a Marine pilot, he shot down 26 Japanese planes) went on to serve two terms as governor of South Dakota, as commissioner of the American Football League and host of the TV series The American Sportsman and The Outdoorsman. The first half of his autobiography--written with his wife--is a conventional, entertaining account of his upbringing on a Midwestern farm, his introduction to flying in the 1930s and his wartime aerial exploits. The second half disappoints as Foss jumps from one event to the next in a kind of outline of his multiple postwar careers. A man of action, Foss offers fairly unsurprising observations, with two exceptions. The first of these is his eyewitness testimony that future senator Joseph McCarthy participated in dangerous air missions in the South Pacific; the second is his defense of his friend the late Charles Lindbergh against charges of disloyalty and anti-Semitism. With a fairly ingenuous charm, Foss highlights his receiving the Medal of Honor from FDR and the thrill of being interviewed by Lawrence Welk. (Dec.)